I confess to being a bit mystified by the lack of comments Wotakoi seems to generate around here.  Not only is it an excellent series which seems to thematically hit right in a much-overlooked sweet spot, but it’s the sort of story that would seem to instigate a lot of discussion.  There’s a lot happening in this show that can stand up to a bit of dissection, and romance-wise it covers a lot of ground we don’t see covered too often in anime.  I really don’t get it, to be honest, but clearly I’m (or Wotakoi is) missing something.

One thing I’ve become quite convinced of now is that this series employed a pretty classic false main character gambit with Narumi.  She’s a main character here, don’t get me wrong – a co-lead in terms of screen time.  But if you’re going to talk about the protagonist,  that’s clearly turned out to be Hirotaka.  What was sold initially as Narumi’s story of trying to adapt to adult dating as an otaku turned out to be Hirotaka’s story of trying to adapt to dating Narumi.  She’s the change agent, but he’s the dynamic one in the pair – and the one from whose perspective we see the narrative the vast majority of the time.

That was certainly never more true than with this episode, which was basically told entirely from Hirotaka’s point of view.  And of course, it’s Hirotaka who’s trying to drive the story forward by driving things forward with Narumi, who seems quite content for things to remain as they are.  Which is to say, treating Hiro more like a middle-school otaku buddy than a boyfriend.  Hirotaka is no longer a pubescent brat, though – he’s an adult, with an adult’s overload of self-analysis and a desire for something real and substantive.  Yes, he’s still a gamer and an otaku – and hey, that doesn’t make him any less of an adult.  And that, dear readers, is exactly the point.

I do think there’s a qualitative difference between Naru and Hiro in this respect.  Both have Peter Pan syndrome in the sense that their hobbies are basically the same as when they were kids, but Narumi is much more stuck in adolescent mode emotionally. She uses her otaku obsession as a shield to hide behind, and she’s gotten very good at it.  Hirotaka in fact institutes a special rule for their amusement park date – when either of them brings up an otaku topic, they have to dump ¥500 into the penalty bank.  It’s a rather transparent ploy, but the problem is that neither of them can really abide by it – and in fact they have a hard time finding stuff to talk about.

I think it’s very much an open question whether there’s enough in this relationship to sustain it as a true romantic one.  But that said, part of the message Wotakoi is selling here is that running away from who we are isn’t the answer.  No, the solution (if there is one) is to find a way to connect while being true to who you are.  The problem is, there may not be enough between Hirotaka and Narumi beyond their shared hobbies to make them a real couple.  And while this episode had many adorable moments between them, I absolutely don’t think it answered that question.

Indeed, when Narumi said “Let’s just give it up”, even though I knew intellectually that wasn’t where Wotakoi was going, it felt very true to the moment.  Hiro had just resignedly told himself he was OK with “the usual” – but getting past the usual was the whole point of this date.  Naru’s gift of a pair of earrings (matching her clip-ons) certainly was a hopeful sign – but it was a baby step.  And even though the pierced ears Hiro got as an expression of adolescent frustration have closed over, when the moment of truth came he too didn’t manage to be an adult – he passed up a perfect opportunity to kiss Narumi (she was certainly expecting it).  This is a frustrating couple to watch, no question about it, but also a fascinating one.